Well said, Debby! I too really miss the days of unity and compassion for us all, for the person who we stand arm in arm on the front lines with through the many years in the war. We all must stop, look, and listen of the winds of change, and the change coming will be a big rocky road!
 
Recently, I have had conversations with a few of the last 3 years newbie operators & growers and some have shockley told me privately they would roll if it means them not going to jail and another person who said if someone pisses them off they would roll on them. What bothers me is there are so many among us who would throw their brother or sister under the bus without a second thought. This makes what we all do more tenuous and risky. So many Feds have joined working in our industry in the past few years so who are real activists/patients & who's undercover, & who's the informates? Get to know the people you socialize with and before sharing deep thoughts.
 
Angel McClary Raich
Email: s..[email protected]
Cell:(phone#-removed)
Skype: angelraich
www.angeljustice.org
 

I am sorry but I totally agree with Allen's statement the medical cannabis industry is driven by money & greed not compassion anymore! It's also an industry no longer movement. There are so many people in this industry now who really can careless about the "real" sick patients who really need this cannabis medication! But they do care about the green but not green from the plant unless you include the paper the money is printed on…
 
Compassion has been soaring missing in the last few years. Compassion has been replaced with greed! It's a sad situation but it is true! Many of the new faces on the frontline of this war will fall to the waist side as the frying pan heats up… Who will be the first to roll & to show false compassion by only giving it to themselves in the corse of save their own ass…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Have a lovely day,
Angel McClary Raich — iPhone
Cell: (phone#-removed)
Email: s..[email protected]
My Website: www.angeljustice.org
US Supreme Court Case
No. 03-1454: Raich v. Gonzales 2004-05
 

So I saw this piece in the NYT and was quite taken back by St. Pierre's statements. He stated: “The medical marijuana industry is driven by profit,” said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which supports medical marijuana legalization. “It’s not driven by compassion anymore. It is driven by the need to make money.”
 
This is somewhat disturbing coupled with recent appeasement made for Obama's crackdown in this Drug War Rant by Peter Guither, where he questions St. Pierre, stating: "It appears, unfortunately, that Allen is speaking as a supporter of candidate Obama and/or the Democratic Party, rather than in his role as executive director of NORML.
If Allen is reading this, I’d love to hear what he was thinking."
Source: http://www.drugwarrant.com/2012/04/failing-to-understand-political-capital/
 
I agree. What is he thinking?
SMOKELESS IN SEATTLE by Dominic Holden
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/13/opinion/smokeless-in-seattle.html
IT was January of 1998 when a friend and I drove to a basement in South Seattle to set up a pot garden. We were terrified. If a police officer pulled us over, how would we explain these bags of rapid-bloom fertilizer — in winter?
Still, we had to go. A friend was suffering from the late stages of a degenerative muscular disease. He spent all day strapped into something that looked like a hospital bed crossed with an easel. Smoking pot helped ease his pain; after his wife held joints to his lips, he would eat soup. He would watch TV. He’d laugh.
Growing pot was illegal at the time, but stories like ours, and a strong public campaign, persuaded 59 percent of Washington State voters to legalize medical marijuana that fall. In the 14 years since, an entire industry has emerged to serve incapacitated patients like my friend, who couldn’t grow pot himself. Doctors write authorizations, dispensaries sell the stuff, trade magazines flourish.
In the eyes of most opponents and many supporters of easing pot laws, medical marijuana is supposed to be a slippery slope to full legalization. But in Washington, the opposite is happening: a momentous initiative to legalize marijuana for all adults, which will be on the ballot this fall, is being opposed by the medical marijuana industry that the previous initiative created.
Initiative 502, as the measure is known, would allow adults 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana without penalty. The state would issue licenses to marijuana farmers, distributors and even stores, which could then sell pot over the counter like beer.
The plan, supported by the likes of John McKay, a former federal attorney, and Rick Steves, the travel writer, is about more than stoners’ rights: legalizing and regulating the pot market would wrest profits from murderous foreign cartels while helping the beleaguered state budget. Officials recently estimated the measure could generate up to $606 million in tax revenue in the first year.
Every recent poll except one has shown most Washington voters are now ready to pass the initiative. But support has slipped since last fall, down to only 51 percent, according to SurveyUSA. The flagging enthusiasm correlates with the escalating effort to stop the initiative.
In late February, Dr. Gil Mobley, a physician with a local clinic providing medical-marijuana authorizations, began a campaign called No on I-502, a new name for a group that, before, called itself Patients Against I-502. It anticipates donations from lawyers and doctors, said its treasurer, Anthony Martinelli, and pot dispensaries may also finance a fall volley of television commercials.
The campaign claims that a provision in Initiative 502 would penalize medical marijuana users who drive with active THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana, in their blood, even a day or a week after the last time they got high. (Any driver who exceeds a limit of five nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood would be automatically guilty of driving under the influence.) They also complain that the law would have zero tolerance for drivers under 21 years old with active THC in their blood. Mr. Martinelli goes so far as to claim that the measure “will take away driving for all cannabis users.”
The anti-502 effort has also played on civil liberties fears. A glossy medical-marijuana magazine, Dope, warned recently that patients would be required to apply for licenses if they wanted to grow cannabis and that the Drug Enforcement Administration could then access their names.
This type of opposition isn’t uncharted political territory: In 2010, a group of medical marijuana dispensaries banded together to help narrowly defeat a legalization initiative in California.
What’s the threat? A legal, regulated market for all consumers — not just sick people — could negate demand for a niche medical pot industry altogether.
“The medical marijuana industry is driven by profit,” said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, which supports medical marijuana legalization. “It’s not driven by compassion anymore. It is driven by the need to make money.”
What’s more, the opposition doesn’t even have a compelling case. I haven’t found a single scientific study showing that even the heaviest of pot users would exceed the five-nanogram cutoff after 24 hours. And the civil liberties attacks are simply dishonest. The rules would remain the same as they currently are for medical marijuana — no registration requirements and no database.
For their part, I-502’s critics insist that they have no financial motivation and that they support legalization, just not this initiative and its D.U.I. regulations. But it’s more than a little strange to defend the status quo, in which nearly 10,000 people are arrested in Washington for possession each year, on civil liberties grounds. And it’s not as if voters would accept a law that didn’t include restrictions on smoking and driving.
Washington State has a chance this fall to siphon profits from cartels while stopping senseless arrests, or it can let the status quo prevail. It’s a simple choice, particularly given that concerns from the medical marijuana industry are, at best, red herrings.Dominic Holden is the news editor of The Stranger, a weekly newspaper in Seattle.
 
Mickey Martin
T-Comp Consulting Director
www.cannabiswarrior.com
www.tcompconsulting.com
s..[email protected]
(phone#-removed)
http://twitter.com/micKEYmarTIN
http://twitter.com/CANNABISconsult
 
 
***The views expressed in this communication are not necessarily the views of T-Comp Consulting, Tainted Compassion, Cannabis Warrior any other group I am affiliated with.***

THe American Academy of Cannabinoid Medicine was founded in 2007 and officially announced our organization i8n 2009. We were formed at least in part because of our disgust with those physicians practicing minimalist medicine in cannabis recommendation miles. This is just plain greed. TRhe avctions of these unscrupul;ous doctors ubndermines the proven scientific legitimacy of the medicinal value of cannabis. It provides ammo to our enemies and is antithetical to both drug policy reform and the medicinal value of cannabis.
Please keep our organization in mind on any effort tp isolate the greedy and unprincip0led in the industry.
If any one wantsa to contribute just nail your check to AACM 7394 Calle Real,Goleta .Ca 93117.
We need a coalition of pricipled entities and there are several out there.
peace
Dr. Dave

Not in Oregon
Not in Colorado
Not in the two states with legalization initiatives which don't put
patients at risk
 
Lee B., Portland
 
On 4/14/2012 10:07 AM, debby goldsberry wrote:

I am totally shocked that anyone would even think of making a profit off medical cannabis. It is an immoral and inhumane position. The medical cannabis industry should follow the example set by the entire American health care industry whose compassion and concern for the health of our nation's citizens is vividly demonstrated by their not-for-profit hospitals, doctor's offices and pharmaceutical companies. The medical cannabis industry needs to follow their example and realize that these health providers are so magnanimous in their compassionate concerns that they employ legions of lobbyists to go to our nation's capital and state legislatures to convince our elected officials to pass all kinds of laws and tax codes that will allow them to continue to provide these services at a cost that people can afford.
 
Why in the world should anyone expect the medical cannabis industry to be any different than every other segment of our nation's health care industrial complex. Making a profit is what this country is all about from top to bottom and for some reason, so many “movement” people profess to be “shocked – yes shocked” by the fact the medical cannabis providers want to make a profit.
 
Cannabis makes people feel good but it does not make them crazy so I am thoroughly puzzled by all this outrage over medical cannabis providers wanting to make a profit.
 
That being said, any medical cannabis facility that works against or even stands passively by and does nothing to help out-and-out legalize marijuana needs to start smoking more pot as pot helps the user develop a more rational perspective of the world around them.
 
With legalization will come a renaissance of entrepreneurial opportunities for large and small marijuana businesses that will dwarf the meager pickings of the collectives struggling to exist in the wild-west atmosphere created by cities refusing to regulate them like any other business.
 
Those of us in favor of legalization need to not only educate the general public about the immense advantages to be gained by legalizing marijuana, but also medical marijuana patients. Once patients come to understand (and most already do – smoking pot does not make you stupid either) how much more accessible and affordable marijuana will be once it is legalized, the sky-is-falling fears of the short-sighted medical cannabis collective growers and operators will be seen as nothing more than self-serving wailings of a profit driven business terrified of not being able to compete in a real-world situation.
 
Whether this infuriates your or is something you totally agree with, you should listen to my radio show Marijuana Compassion and Common Sense every Monday at 6 pm PSDT. It is broadcast over the air on California's Inland Empire Talk Radio station KCAA 1050AM and simulcast on the Internet at www.kcaaradio.com. Past shows can be accessed 24/7 at the kcaaradio.com website by going to the left hand column and clicking on Monday and then scrolling down the next page to Marijuana Compassion and Common Sense and clicking on Podcast.
 
Lanny

<http://www.philly.com/> philly.com
 
Posted: Sat, Apr. 14, 2012, 3:00 AM
 
Latin America breaking ranks on drug war
<http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20120414_Latin_America_breaking_ranks_
on_drug_war.html>
 
By Juan Blanco Prada
 

<http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20120414_Latin_America_breaking_ranks_
on_drug_war.html?imageId=71522845> President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia
has declared the drug war a failure and came out in support of
decriminalization. FERNANDO LLANO / Associated Press
 
President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia has declared the drug war a failure
and came out in support of decriminalization. FERNANDO LLANO / Associated
Press
 

 
Latin American countries are rightfully fed up with fighting Washington’s
war on drugs. In the four decades since President Richard Nixon declared the
war on drugs, its battles have been fought predominantly in Latin American
nations, leaving behind a trail of death and corruption while failing to
achieve any of its goals.
 
After a bloody, decades-long war in Colombia, the epicenter of drug
trafficking simply moved north, to Mexico. Upon taking office five years
ago, Mexican President Felipe Calderón fully embraced the war on drugs, and
the country quickly entered a downward spiral of violence that has left tens
of thousands dead, even as the cartels remain as strong as ever.
 
At the same time, Central America has become a hub for drug smugglers.
American-style street gangs operate as the armed muscle of the drug cartels,
bringing the violence in Central America to levels that rival those of the
civil wars of the 1980s. The bloodshed has even spread to countries that
until recently enjoyed some of the lowest crime rates in the world, such as
Costa Rica and Belize.
 
In addition, the perception in the region is that the United States makes
tough demands on other governments to combat drug cartels while doing too
little to reduce demand at home. America remains the largest drug consumer
market in the world. Furthermore, its lax gun laws have made it the main
source of weapons for drug cartels, and its financial institutions enjoy
much of the profit of the drug business.
 
Some former Latin American leaders and U.S. officials have long advocated
decriminalization of drugs to address the failure of the existing approach.
But it’s only been recently that current leaders of Latin American countries
have joined the calls for that approach.
 
First, President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, a conservative whose nation
is the United States’ staunchest ally in the war on drugs, declared the drug
war a failure and came out in support of decriminalization. Then, a few
weeks ago, President Otto Pérez Molina of Guatemala, a conservative former
general, said he would consider legalizing the possession and transportation
of drugs, and he called for a meeting of all of Central America’s presidents
to debate the issue.
 
This sounded an alarm in Washington. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet
Napolitano and Vice President Biden were sent to the region to deliver the
message that the United States is not interested in debating alternatives to
its failed strategy.
 
The arm-twisting was somewhat successful, as the presidents of El Salvador,
Honduras, and Nicaragua withdrew from the planned summit. But the presidents
of Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Panama did not back down. In late March, they
gathered in Antigua, Guatemala, to discuss alternatives to the war on drugs.
 
We desperately need alternatives. Forty years of the war on drugs have
caused death and destruction, and increased the power of criminal
organizations, without a significant reduction in drug use.
 
The United States must acknowledge this failure and join the nations of
Latin America in embracing alternatives to the war on drugs, including
legalization or at least decriminalization of drug use. Otherwise, the
United States may soon find itself fighting this unwinnable war alone.
 
Juan Blanco Prada writes for Progressive Media Project.

But if the legislation really *isn't* an improvement, then the "mind trick" is on us. How do you know folks like Paul Chabot on the "other side" didn't have a conversation along the following lines:
 
"Ammiano may be a pothead sympathizer, but this AB 2312 bill of his actually looks to be a major blessing in disguise. If it passes and this new state regulatory agency is created, it will allow us to gradually ramp up regulations and state control of marijuana until dispensaries become de facto illegal in this state even in the communities that are too pro-pot for us to get local bans passed. But if we support this publicly, the druggies will realize how Ammiano's bill actually undermines their agenda, and they may get him to withdraw or modify it. So we should publicly pretend that we're against it, in order to have a better chance of seeing it become law."
 
Or maybe they're kind of neutral on Ammiano's bill, but find it convenient as a scare tactic to raise more money from their members.
 
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
 
 
On Apr 13, 2012, at 1:33 PM, Brett Stone wrote:
 
 
> ###
 
> Support the Coalition for a Drug Free California
> www.drugfreecaliforia.org
 
 
On Apr 13, 2012, at 3:22 PM, s..[email protected] wrote:
 

yeh i dont thinkyou guys fully digested before just towing company
line. Amendments need to be made. What mickeys trying to get across
which i agree with portions of is its not helping to have a commerical
industry roll this out as their victory. Let other coalitions perhapd
say healthcare workers or someone else who doesnt make their living w
cannabis be the voice and face . Dont brand it . Again im far more
curious about what leno just did and think that might be our quiet
victory this year? Not sure . Need more input. Queit clarity of sb420
might be the most graceful and successful path?
 
 
—
Shona Gochenaur
Executive Director
Axis of Love SF
http://www.facebook.com/axisoflove
http://www.twitter.com/axisoflove

We should oppose AB 2312, not because doing so will trick others into
supporting it, but rather because it's truly a step backwards. From a
recently published article of mine on this topic:
 
 
 
I see the same sort of "pot economy exclusivizing" attempts happening in
the USA. There have been some concerns about how little regulations there
are in the California med pot market. Most of the articulated concerns
there center around dispensaries using "sexy nurses" to sell pot. Here are
a few links:
 
http://cannabiswarrior.com/2011/11/29/im-too-sexy-for-my-meds-too-sexy-for-my-meds/
http://cannabiswarrior.com/2011/11/08/putting-medical-cannabis-on-trial/
http://thepuffingtonhost.com/is-political-correctness-from-within-hurting-the-cause/
http://ericspitznagel.com/content/published-stories/this-bud%E2%80%99s-for-you/
 
One of these, the "Medical Marijuana Regulation and Control
Act"<http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120AB2312>
(MMRCA)
is similar to Americans for Safe Access's "Medical Marijuana Regulation,
Control and Taxation Act"<http://americansforsafeaccess.org/downloads/MMRCT.pdf>
(MMRCTA).
 
They both make the same fundamental errors: they both
 
– require everyone in the med pot industry – including drivers – to
register, thus making it easy and cost effective for the Feds to – with a
single subpoena – find out who everyone is and charge everyone,
– make it very easy to set a limit of one dispensary per 50,000 people,
thus creating a monopoly or cartel. In comparison, there is a limit of one
wine retail outlet per 1,250 residents in big cities and one wine retail
outlet per 2,500 residents in smaller towns.
– create a med pot bureaucracy that is open to corruption instead of
setting up transparent standards that make it easy for everyone to comply
without having to know or kiss up to anyone, making corruption nearly
impossible.
– allow the licensing board to drag it's heels for six months deciding
whether or not to allow you to sell pot while you must pay rent on the
location you've chosen to sell pot from – ensuring only the rich will be
able to open up a retail outlet.
 
I spoke over the phone with Valerie Corral, the co-founder/director of the
longest running medical marijuana distribution operation in the world
– the Wo/Men's
Alliance for Medical Marijuana <http://wamm.org/> (WAMM –
founded<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wo/Men’s_Alliance_for_Medical_Marijuana>
in
1993).
 
She pointed out that over-regulating the med pot industry in Colorado has
not stopped the Feds from raiding – and local governments from banning -
med pot dispensaries there. She's right:
 
http://www.denverpost.com/news/marijuana/ci_19729182
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/colorado-medical-marijuan_n_1224205.html
http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/content/2012/01/12/Feds-Threaten-Colorado-Medical-Marijuana-Dispensaries
 
http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/content/2011/12/14/Crackdown-Colorado-s-Medical-Pot-Business-Horizon
 
http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/content/2012/02/10/Colorado-Judge-Denies-Request-Block-Fort-Collins-Ban-Medical-Marijuana-Businesses
 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/27/medical-marijuana-deadlin_n_1303712.html
 
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/01/13/feds-crack-down-on-colorado-medical-pot-dispensaries/
 
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2012/01/feds_announce_colorado_medical_marijuana_crackdown.php
 
 
The Colorado Medical Marijuana
Registry<http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/regulations/vitalstatistics/100602medicalusemarijuana.pdf>,
which is already in effect, stipulates that;
 
ii) "Primary care-giver" means a person other than the patient and the
patient's physician, who is eighteen years of age or older and has
significant responsibility for managing the wellbeing of a patient who has
a debilitating medical condition. A person shall be listed as a primary
care-giver for no more than five patients in the medical marijuana program
registry at any given time unless a waiver has been granted for exceptional
circumstances, as per Regulation Ten below.
 
But when one goes on to read "Regulation Ten", it is unclear what
"circumstances" allows one to qualify for such a waiver.
 
Valerie Corral pointed out:
 
The Colorado initiative would prevent WAMM from serving the sick, dying,
and financially marginalized patients. In Colorado there is no part of the
law that encourages service to the poor in the form of the true collective.
In fact, their regulations encourage an entrepreneurial model, with service
to the patient at the bottom.
 
She continued:
 
It's the same story of rich protecting their interests. As multinational
pharmaceutical mogul GW Pharmaceuticals, and others in the competitive
corporate market prepare to assume control of the medical marijuana
industry and its potential mult-billion dollar industry, the question
arises; could we as the fundamental force behind this movement do something
besides join in the struggle to become corporate idealist?
 
Did we completely miss our opportunity to create a unified force and not
succumb to becoming the pharmaceutical industry?
 
Ordinary people, growers, collective participants, old school activists
with honest standards can't afford to be a part of this mega-dollar
industry. But mostly it is the marginalized patient who suffers. In
Colorado, they have extremely rigid standards – 24 hour surveillance – and
no mechanism to serve the poor. When they created a regulatory system in
Santa Cruz county, they also wrote in a exemption that allows for
pre-existing collectives. There are no such exemptions in any of the
present California State-wide medical marijuana regulations. In fact one
threatens to eliminate WAMM. How could they be so ignorant as to betray
history?
 
I don't think it is as intentional as it is a fundamental flaw in the way
they see their future roles. Some of these activist lawmakers actually
think that they will become the new corporation. I just don't believe that
the corporate power wielders perceive a potential $12.5 million industry as
something that they care to share.
 
She sent me the link to the Colorado MM Registry on her work computer, a
twelve-year-old beast. Corral has, virtually, taken an oath of poverty and
hardly takes enough in donations to meet her basic necessities. I believe
that people should have the right to choose to live that way, but that any
med pot regulations that do not allow people to choose to make enough money
for dentistry or computers or vacations or raising children (including
providing tuition for them) was unjust.
 
In the process of fact-checking the story, Corral corrected me a little:
 
I haven't taken an oath of poverty. On the contrary I am extremely
fortunate and through the strangest set of circumstances, I live in one of
the most beautiful places in the world. For how much longer I cannot say.
But that is for many reasons. I just prefer to work with people than I do
with pot (as you call it). I am now writing you from my MacBook Pro.
 
Corral continued:
 
Shouldn't you ask who you serve what they want before you give it to them?
Long ago Ross Perot flew frozen turkeys to Indonesia for relief after a
Hurricane … problem was that Indonesians don't eat frozen turkeys – they
sat rotting on the runway. People should consult with us before regulating
us. They didn't.
 
Had we – the Californian cannabis community – coalesced into a unified
force, devoted to the mission we convinced Californians that we were
committed to, to service, transparency, and accountability, we would have
created an infallible model. Instead of taking us out one by one, we could
have become a union of service, an invincible force. But we didn't, and now
we are suffering from the problems we have engendered; presuming that the
mega-corporations want us at the table. Not likely.
 
I asked her about Dennis Peron, and how he was allowed to make enough money
to be politically-active, and whether or not she thought he should have
been able to do so:
 
The whole origin of medical marijuana activists came out of gay men who
were tired of being beaten and slammed. When it came to medical marijuana -
they just put it down on the list of all the shit they already had to deal
with. Dennis is a revolutionary. But it's not about revolution, it's about
evolution, John Trudell so aptly told me… we don't need to revolve back to
where we were, he said … we need to evolve beyond.
 
I agree with Corral that had nobody attempted to create a cannabis cartel
with Prop 19 and everyone had focused on putting the patient first, to
being accountable and transparent, the movement would have been much harder
to attack than it has been.
 
I feel that people who wish to earn a living from selling cannabis should
be able to do so – or continue to do so. I just don't believe that one
person should be making all of – or most of – the money.
 
What we should be united around is the right to be equal with the wine
grape growers and wine merchants – and eventually the coffee bean growers
and coffee merchants. These growers and merchants don't have to pay tuition
for a degree in microbiology (or anything else) in order to be legitimate,
they don't have to close down if they're 1000 feet from a school, they
don't have to wait six months for a license, and they are not limited to
one retail outlet per 50,000 residents.
 
If these merchants choose to run a not-for-profit operation they have that
freedom, but they can also make a decent living for themselves. No one
person or group is allowed to monopolize the sales of all the wine or all
the coffee.
 
If we all unite together and demand equality with these other substance
providers, everyone will have enough for our needs – without all the greed.
http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/node/30181
 
 
 
 
 
On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 3:22 PM, s..[email protected] <

hi
our regulations for alcohol work pretty well. As do our regulations fror tabacco. mIt seems to me that tabacco being the bigger health risk than alcohol that using the yabacco regulations as a point of departure makes more sense. Cannabis compares even more favorably with tabacco than it does with alcohol. While I'm not intimately familiar with tabaco regulations I'm pretty sure that they are looser than alcohol regs
peace
dr.dave
 

Hi all,
Even if you are disappointed with Barack Obama as a result of local raids.  Consider the alternative.  I am not going because I have responsibilities here….but you may want to.
Richard
 
— On Fri, 4/13/12, Mary Jane Stevenson, CA.BarackObama.com <s..[email protected]> wrote:
 
Apply by Sunday: Field Organizer Academy in Oakland
 
 
 
Richard –
 
 
 
I wanted to make sure you saw my note about our upcoming Field Organizer Academy in Oakland, starting on April 21st. See below for all the details.
 
 
 
There are still a few spots available, but they're going fast.
 
 
 
So if you think you'd like a shot at becoming a field organizer and relocating to work in a battleground state this year, apply for the Academy now — or by Sunday, April 15th, at the latest:
 
http://ca.barackobama.com/Oakland-Organizer-Academy
 
 
 
Thank you,
 
 
 
Mary Jane
 
 
 
—————–Original Message—————–
 
 
 
 
 
Friend –
 
 
 
We're looking at a lot of pathways to win in November, but they all have one thing in common: They each require the best field operation in politics.
 
 
 
If you'd like to get in on the action where it counts the most, here's your chance.
 
 
 
This month, there's a Field Organizer Academy in Oakland. It's a two-week training program — and those who complete it successfully will be evaluated for upcoming field organizer jobs in battleground states.
 
Are you interested? Submit your application here by April 15th.
 
 
 
The Academy will kick off with a full-day training on April 21st. For the two weeks that follow — until Friday, May 4th — you'll spend 20 hours a week learning the ropes of organizing by working to meet field goals, and finding out what the day-to-day life of an organizer is like.
 
 
 
The training will be hands-on and intensive. You'll be doing the actual work that a field organizer job will entail: organizing events, training volunteers, and talking with new folks about why they should take that first step and get involved.
 
 
 
You'll meet some incredible people, from volunteers to fellow organizers to the voters you'll talk with each day about what the President and Democrats are fighting for.
 
 
 
But here's the most important part: You could go to a key battleground state and join a team that's going to shape the outcome of this election.
 
 
 
If you're up for a move to where the action is, this Academy is for you.
 
So apply now to attend the Field Organizer Academy in Oakland starting on April 21st:
 
http://ca.barackobama.com/Oakland-Organizer-Academy
 
 
 
If you're selected, we'll follow up with the details.
 
 
 
Thanks, and good luck,
 
 
 
Mary Jane
 
 
 
Mary Jane Stevenson
 
California State Director
 
Obama for America
 
 

This email was sent to: s..[email protected]

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Hi
Obama is a hypocrit and a liar. While I may still hold my bose and vote for him because Romney is an even bigger phony that is no reason not to take Obama to task for not being a man opf his word. He should not get a free pass for saying one thing and doing another. where I come fromj that is bait and switch and it is plain wrong.
peace
Dr. Dave
 

Yes, Shona,
the US Supreme Court rejected review of the California case.
They allowed the great Kha decision –
forcing the return of property (marijuana) after dismissal of charges
— to stand,
regardless of contrary federal law.
So, federal law does not pre-empt state law with respect to return of
medical marijuana after dismissal of criminal charges.
STATES RIGHTS PREVAIL, according to the Supreme Court.
You can't go any higher so that's the end of the story.
 
The US Supremes are giving us the clue that federal cannabis prohibition
cannot ultimately win in a battle with states rights, no matter how
bleak it gets in the moment.
 
Atty Joe Elford's victory on behalf of Kau means the private medical
property
of a cannabis patient in medical marijuana states is explicitly
protected;
it is not hypothetical.
 
And every time we hear the opposition claiming federal law is opposed
to all marijuana and pre-empts state law,
we can cite Kau as precedent to the contrary to show, the times they
are a-changin'.
 
pebbles trippet
 
Begin forwarded message:
 

I plan on supporting Ammiano's Bill. Here in Southern California (a whole different place from Northern California) Most police agencies don't know what to do with collectives. Cities was to eradicate them, and things are in gray areas. This bill will take most of the grays out of law. I just sat through a three week trial where they would not allow the AG Guidelines, because the judge said they are just guidelines, not law. It is important to have all the collectives registered with the state, all paying taxes and all accountable. This will get those who don't want to help patients out of the business (Cartels and such).
 
 
 
 
 
Let me get this straight:
 
— Stricter state regulations of medical cannabis are desperately needed in California.
 
— Some of the brightest minds in the industry band together after the federal crackdown and draft a comprehensive, statewide regulatory structure that largely pre-empts local dispensary bans. (That's what actually happened, whether you like what they did or not.)
 
— Ammiano picks up a lot of the language in MMRCT and introduces AB 2312.
 
— You think the best way to pass stricter state regulations is to oppose AB 2312.
 
I won't even bother going point-by-point on what the bill actually does; nobody seems to care. Some people oppose any type of stricter regulation, preferring to cling to the mast of a sinking ship. Some people will settle for nothing less than full legalization, even though medical-only cannabis distribution is in total chaos.
 
Politicians get labeled every day as being "in the pocket" of this industry or that, and if their opponents want to make a point of that in the debate, that's cool. Before that happens, however, maybe we all could spend a little more time doing what the politicians do between mudslinging episodes: Read and write proposed laws, hammer them out in committee, and more committees after that. THEN you can argue about what the bill does and who's an idiot (or not) for supporting it.
 
Opposing AB 2312 just because Ammiano is friendly to the cause and the bill faces an uphill battle makes no sense. The late, great ghost of Ronald Reagan could write the next pot-regulation bill and the GOP lawmakers wouldn't support it. If Ammiano can't count on our support now, why should be stick his neck out for us next time? And why should anyone else?

Those are all valid points. If we all start today we should have this thing worked out by 2016 easy.
 
 
 

The reason we are getting our asses whipped in the state legislature is not because most legislators see Ammiano and Leno as being in the pocket of the mmj folks, but because mmj folks are almost totally uninvolved in the political process unlike the cops and city officials who unite to oppose us.
 
How many mmj people are involved in their county's Democratic and Republican central committees? How many mmj people are involved in PACs raising money to buy our elected officials votes? How many mmj people are volunteering to help candidates who support us in the their election campaigns? How many mmj patients are running for local offices? Our opponents are involved in all of those and hardly any of us are and that's why mmj continues to be laughed at, scorned and run over with a bulldozer by state and local elected official.
 
In Riverside County, I am forming a Riverside County Cannabis Democratic Club. When organized it becomes an official part of the Democratic Central Committee with access to many of the resources and officials of the local Democratic Party. I need 20 people to sign up and have 18 now, so I expect to have the needed number by the end of the week.
 
So stop throwing your hands and legs up in the air, writing diatribes against the people who are actually doing something to try and help, crying woe is us and complaining that we don't have any power and start doing something to get that power.
 
Lanny